Oak National Academy’s status as a government arm’s-length body is causing “significant market damage”, the chancellor has been warned.
In a letter seen by Tes, Dan Conway, CEO of the Publishers Association, has asked Rachel Reeves to “reduce costs” for Oak in the upcoming spending review.
Mr Conway warned that Oak, which was relaunched as a government arm’s-length body (ALB) of the Department for Education in 2022, is having a negative impact on the existing education technology market.
“The ALB is currently causing significant market damage, with a knock-on effect on investment and growth,” he wrote to Ms Reeves on 10 February.
The letter comes after Tes revealed that Oak co-founder Matt Hood will be stepping down from his role as chief executive.
Oak National Academy ‘has caused job cuts’
An independent review is currently assessing Oak’s “efficacy” as a public body. Its findings are now due to be published in early 2025, after they were initially expected in September last year.
The DfE will also be considering the market impact of Oak alongside the review.
Since Oak was established as a DfE curriculum resources provider, Mr Conway said that the UK market for education resources had “fallen by 12 per cent - from £218.8 million in 2022 to £191.7 million in 2023”.
“Jobs have been cut and planned investment cancelled,” Mr Conway added.
Edtech consultant Jodie Lopez told Tes that Oak has “definitely had an impact on other businesses in that area, particularly where they are doing similar things”.
However, she added that it is important not to “forget” the impact of the pandemic and lockdowns.
“Teachers actually had a huge uptick in taking on edtech during lockdown, which has caused an inevitable slowdown in uptake of new things since,” Ms Lopez said. “Teachers took on so many new tools during that time. It is unrealistic to expect that level of growth to continue.”
The Publishers Association, along with the British Educational Suppliers Association and the Society of Authors, had previously won approval for a judicial review into the government’s decision to establish Oak as an ALB.
However, Tes revealed last year that education secretary Bridget Phillipson had written to the claimants offering to cut Oak’s funding in upcoming spending reviews, in the hope of ending legal action.
The judicial review is now on hold until September 2025, after the involved parties agreed to a stay in proceedings.
Chancellor urged to ‘clip Oak’s wings’
Oak was initially set up during the pandemic as a platform aimed at helping schools to deliver remote lessons and online learning.
“Oak was a pet project for ministers now not in post and this is an opportunity for HM Treasury to sensibly and proportionately clip its wings,” Mr Conway wrote in his letter.
He suggested that Oak “can serve a useful purpose” in times of school disruption, but does not need to replace the commercial market provision “at cost to the taxpayer”.
The government quango was initially funded with £43 million over three years when it was launched.
Since then Oak has been given “up to £2 million” of extra government funding to invest in building artificial intelligence tools to help reduce teachers’ workload.
In a recent evaluation report, Oak said that the number of lessons being accessed by pupils dropped by more than 2 million last year, but overall teacher use of the site increased sharply.
Mr Conway told the chancellor: “Our view is that there is an opportunity available for the Exchequer to reduce costs and retain a useful DfE ALB as well as a flourishing UK education resources market.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “As is the usual process, funding commitments for the next year are set through the Budget and Spending Review. More details will be set out in due course when departmental budgets are confirmed.”
Oak has been contacted for comment.
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